The Age of Innocence
by Ede2013
Summary: After their wedding, Broadway Star Rachel Berry and assistant photographer Quinn Fabray learn that growing up is much more difficult than they'd expected. Meanwhile, Santana Lopez is a newly qualified paediatrician who's preoccupied with the diagnosis off a young three year old boy suffering from leukaemia. Set in New York - Rating may change! Other Glee combinations included.


**Hello, I hope you enjoy my first fanfic! ****It's a little roughly put together and the characters aren't fully evolved yet but I'll be working on that in up and coming chapters. For anyone who wants to know how old that are, I picture them to be around twenty four years old. **

**It begins mainly with Quinn, Rachel and eventually Santana. Hopefully, if it progresses well, it will also have a healthy side portion of the other glee characters. OC's will be included but that may change depending on the direction I take. **

**Rating may go up later on. If anything needs clarifying then just feel free to ask and I'll explain as best as I possibly can. **

**Side note: This story was uploaded but I had to delete it due to problems with the document. Sorry to everyone who favourite/reviewed etc, but your lovely comments were extremely well appreciated! **

_**/#/#/#/#**_

_Letter's From Britain_

_Quinn's POV: _

_**/#/#/#/#**_

If I took every romantic poem, every book, every song and every movie I've ever read, heard or seen and extracted the breath-taking moments, somehow bottling them up, they would pale in comparison to this moment.

This moment is incomparable.

Rachel's lying on her side facing me, her elbow tucked under her head, her other hand stroking the back of my hand that's resting on her pillow. Her velvet hair is spread out across the pillow, spilling down her shoulder and across her neck. She's staring at her fingers as they move in circles over my hand. I've known her for almost eleven years now, and I've never seen her this content. She's no longer solely carrying the weight that's been her life for the last two years, and it shows. It's almost as if the moment we said "I do" yesterday, the hardships and heartaches we faced as individuals were meshed, making our pasts lighter…easier to carry. From this point on I'll be able to do that for her. I'll take her burdens, should there be any more, and I'll be able to carry them _for_ her. It's all I've wanted to do for this girl since the moment I realised I loved her.

She glances up at me and smiles, then laughs and buries her face into the pillow.

I lean over her and kiss her on the neck. "What's so funny?"

She lifts her face off the pillow—her cheeks a deeper shade of red. She shakes her head and laughs. "Us," she says. "I can't believe we made it this far."

I kiss her scarlet cheek and laugh. "We defied all odds." I agreed. Neither of us had ever expected to last this long.

I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her on top of me. When she leans in to kiss me, her hair falls between us. I reach to the night stand and grab her rubber band, then twist her hair into a knot behind her head and secure it. "There," I say, pulling her face back to mine. "Better."

She was adamant about having matching robes, but we haven't once used them. Her white sundress has been on the floor since I threw it there last night. Needless to say, this has been the best twenty-four hours of my life.

She kisses down my jaw and traces a trail with her lips up to my ear. "You hungry?" she whispers.

"Not for food."

She pulls back and grins. "We've still got another twenty-four hours to go before we have to go home, you know. If you want to keep up with me you need to replenish your energy. Besides, we somehow missed lunch today." She rolls off of me and reaches into the nightstand, pulling out the room service menu.

"Are you still a vegetarian?" I say, teasing her. I was personally hoping for a nice bacon sandwich.

She rolls her eyes and laughs. "You'll never get over that." She scrolls the menu and points at it with her finger, and then holds it up. "What about falafel wraps with grilled veg & salsa?" she asks. "I've always wanted to try that."

"Sounds good," I say, inching closer to her. She picks up the phone to dial room service. The whole time she's on the phone I kiss up and down her back, forcing her to stifle her laughs as she tries to maintain her composure while ordering. When she hangs up the phone, she slides underneath me and pulls the covers over us.

"You have twenty minutes," she whispers. "Think you can handle that?"

"I only need ten," I say with a smirk.

**/#/#/#/#**

The wraps did not disappoint. The only issue now is that we're too stuffed and too tired to move. We've turned the TV on for the first time since arriving in the beautiful little French town of , so I think it's safe to say we're due for at least a two hour break.

Our legs are intertwined and her head is on my chest. I'm running my fingers through her hair with one hand and stroking her wrist with the other. Somehow trivial things like lying in bed watching TV have become idyllic when we're tangled together like this.

"Quinn?" she asks. She pulls herself up onto her elbow and looks at me. "Can I ask you something?" She runs her hand across my chest, resting it on top of my heart.

"I do about twelve laps a day round central park, plus 100 sit-ups twice a day," I say. She arches an eyebrow, so I point to my stomach. "Weren't you going to ask me about my abs?"

She laughs and playfully punches me. "No, I wasn't asking about your abs." She leans down and kisses me on the stomach. "They _are_ nice, though."

I stroke her cheek and pull her gaze back to me. "Ask me anything, Rach."

She sighs and drops her elbow as she lays her head back onto the pillow, staring up at the ceiling. "Do you ever feel guilty?" she says quietly. "For feeling this happy?"

I scoot closer to her and lay my arm across her stomach. "Rach," I say. "Don't ever feel guilty. This is exactly what he'd want for you."

We were talking about Rachel's fathers. Whilst one was extremely supportive, the other was barely able to tolerate my existence. Hiram didn't approve and I didn't blame him. He was reluctant to trust me with his daughter due to our past. He felt that it was his responsibility to question every motive, every intention and every valid emotion to determine whether or not my feelings were real. When it comes to Hiram, I've accepted that I will always remain under constant scrutiny.

She looks at me and forces a smile. "I know it's what he'd want for me. I just…I don't know. If only I could make him see what I see, then he'd realise how perfect you are. So sometimes I feel guilty because I–"

I press my fingers to her lips. "Shh," I say. "Don't think like that, Rachel. Don't think about what ifs." I lean in and kiss her on the forehead. "But I do know what you mean if that helps. It's counter-productive thinking about it, though. It is what it is. Eventually, I'll earn his trust."

She takes my hand in hers and intertwines our fingers, then brings them to her lips and kisses the back of my hand. "You're right. He has no excuse now though – now that we're married."

"Much to his surprise," I say. It had never been a secret that he'd bet against Leroy, stating we'd only last for two months, maximum.

Two years later and I had officially made his daughter into my beautiful wife.

She laughs. "One more thing about the past, then I'll stop bringing it up," she says. She looks at me with a slightly evil grin on her face. "I'm so glad Gia dumped you."

I laugh. "She knew I was meant for you."

She smiles and releases her fingers from mine. She turns toward me on the bed and strokes my face as we lie on our pillows and watch each other. I pull her hand to my mouth and kiss the inside of her palm.

"Do you think you would have married her?" she says.

I laugh and roll my eyes. "Seriously, baby? Do you really want to talk about this right now?"

She shrugs. "I'm just curious. We've never really talked about what happened between you two. Now that I know you aren't going anywhere, I feel more comfortable talking about it. Besides, there are a lot of things I want to know about you," she says. "Like… how you felt when she broke up with you."

I sigh. "That's an odd thing to want to hear about on our honeymoon."

She smiles at me and shrugs her shoulders. "I just want to know everything about you. I've already got most of your past, now I just want to hear about all the tiny parts that I missed out on. For example, five years passed after high school where I never saw you, and in that time you fell in love with Gia," I nodded. The time apart was clearly necessary for the both of us. In that time, I had changed so much that Rachel had hardly believed I was the same person. _She'd surprised me too._ Whilst Gia had taught me to drop at least some of my walls, Rachel had learnt to look deeper into people, beyond the answers she may have been searching for. She had learnt that while some people are exactly as they appear, others are far more complex personalities to try and navigate, me being one of those people. I looked into Rachel's massive chocolate orbs to see her smiling at me still, her devilish grin still intact. "So yes, I want to hear everything. Besides…" she grins. "We've got a couple of hours to kill before your energy is fully replenished. What else are we gonna do?"

I'm too exhausted to move right now and as much as I can pretend I'm not keeping count, nine times in twenty-four hours_ has_ to be some sort of record. I roll over onto my stomach and prop a pillow under my chin, and then begin to tell her my story.

**/#/#/#/#**

**_Two and a half years earlier._**

_**/#/#/#/#**_

"Hey." I greeted my boss with a smile as I walked into the office and started shuffling through papers on my desk. Although Gia Carson was my boss, she was also my best friend and recently, she'd become something more. We'd never defined it since we were afraid that if we did, then what we had would vanish. I was still figuring out my feelings and Gia didn't want anything serious anyway. That wasn't her style. "What are you looking at?"

"Rachel Berry." My head shot up but I managed to refrain myself from running to the window in the off chance of seeing the tiny brunette walk down the street. "They're putting up a poster for her show across the street."

"We can shut the blinds?"

"No." Gia said calmly as she continued to watch the men work just like she had been for the last hour. "Is everyone gone?"

The stylists, prep teams and model's had gone home leaving Gia's studio bare.

I nodded slowly, unsure how to read my boss's mood. It was rare that Gia was completely calm. She had her pensive moments but that usually left her with a look of concentration on her face. Not now though. "Yeah. They just left."

"Good. Because we need to talk." She slowly turned and met my eyes with lifeless ones of her own. This scared me more than life itself. The thing about Gia is that she has the most amazing eyes. So expressive, you can read every emotion in the emerald sparkle of her beautiful dark eyes. I had never seen her gaze so empty. I had known this woman for nearly three years, shared her bed for one year, but I had never seen her like that. So unfeeling and... numb.

"What do we need to talk about?" I asked, feeling as though something definite was about to come my way. "Have you decided whether or not to go back to London?"

I was hoping desperately that this was what she wanted to say. I could do with a change of scenery and I felt as though it would open new doors for us. As my best friend above anything else, I didn't want to be left behind whilst she returned back to her home country. I didn't think for a single second that I could function without her smile in my life and her husky, sexy voice floating around my mind at night. It just wasn't a life that I was willing to consider.

Gia held my stare for a little bit longer before looking at the ground. "This isn't working, Quinn."

"What's not working?"

Neither of us was expecting the emotional break in my voice and Gia had to swallow down her own emotions. She knew this was what we both needed but hearing that I was truly going to be effected by it caught her off guard I guess. By the look in her eyes, I could tell she was surprised I hadn't noticed this sooner.

"I love you." Her voice cracked under the pressure, unable to truly hide her emotions. As powerful and as articulately well-spoken as she was, as good as she was at condensing emotion, she was never good in situations that truly touched her. "I love you more than anything but I can't compete with your feelings for her. Whoever 'Rachel Berry' is she knows you in ways that I never can because you won't let me. She knows your past and I only know the tiny fractions that you _don't_ edit out." She paused and stepped closer me. I was barely shaking my head in response. "You're my girlfriend – my best friend. You should feel as though you can tell me anything, baby."

"Gia, we can-"

"No. We can't." She cut me off quickly. It was clear from the stern expression that she didn't want to hear anything I had to say in fear that I would persuade her to change her mind. "I want to be patient Quinn, but we both know I'm not gifted like that. I've tried, baby. I really have, but I'm not her." Gia's voice was growing louder and louder as her frustrations with the situation mounted. She knew what she wanted, and like she always had, she went for it. But life was being cruel and forced her to want something she couldn't have this time, regardless of how hard she worked for it. She'd never wanted someone before, not like this. She was the sort of woman that didn't need anyone else, but she had taken me under her wing, protected me from the worse of my self-inflicted pain and taught me to love without effort. But, she knew deep down that I belonged to someone else, even though I had no idea. "You have no idea, do you Quinn?"

"No." I admitted.

"Listen, I love you – in any condition and under any circumstance. You're my best friend, but maybe that's where our love should end. Maybe, the woman you need is out there, still. I've seen the way your face lights up when you show me pictures of you and Rachel at high-school. It's beautiful, but you don't look at me that way. That hurts, Quinn."

"But I do love you. You never need to question that -"

"That might be true. But you don't love me like I need you to and I don't love _you _like you need _me _too." Gia paused and stepped closer, pulling me into a hug. I cherished it because I knew it might be our last. I memorised the scent of her coconut shampoo, her naturally tousled brunette hair that glimmered with the same bronze tones that glistened in her emerald eyes, I ran my fingers across her velvet skin, jealous of her perfect caramel complexion, I even memorised the tiny pattern of freckles across her nose from days of sunbathing in the park. "I've given you everything I can and now I'm accepting that it isn't enough."

I wrapped her arms around the brunette's torso and pulled her closer. "Gia... don't go."

**/#/#/#/#**

"Wow," Rachel says, quietly. "She really loved you."

"Thank God for that," I laugh. "If she hadn't, then I don't know who would have taught me to love like she did." It was down to her that I'd had the courage to call Rachel and apologise for everything in our past that I couldn't erase. I clasped my hands together behind my head and look up at the ceiling, mirroring my wife's position on the bed. "It's funny how history almost repeated itself."

"What do you mean?" she asks, adorable creases forming between her eyebrows as she frowned.

"Think about it. She broke up with me because she _knew_ I loved you, and then you almost refused to date me because you thought _I_ loved her." I laughed at the memory.

"I didn't breakup with you though," she reminds me, pointing a finger at me and giving me her cutest pout.

I laugh and sit up on the bed. "Nearly though! Your exact words were 'I can't date someone who has an ex-girlfriend as beautiful as _that_."

Rachel scrunches her nose up, grinning from ear to ear. "Well, I didn't see why you _wouldn't_ love her." She pouts defensively.

"She isn't you." I say with conviction. I lie back down on my pillow and face her again.

"So Gia is more your second choice?"

"Yes." Rachel had heard that from my mouth before but it had never seemed more certain than it did right now. She smiled in satisfaction. I may have always meant it, but now I could see that Rachel truly believed it.

"Well," she says quietly, looking at me. "I'm grateful she took such great care of you. You're perfect."

I take her hand and rest it between us, then stroke the back of it with my thumb. "Let's not fall apart again," I whisper.

She looks me in the eyes. "Never."

There's vulnerability in the way she looks at me. Silence falls around us. Her eyes are scrolling over my face, her mouth curled up in a slight grin. She doesn't speak, but she doesn't have to. I know in these moments when it's just her and I and nothing else, that she truly, soul-deep loves me.

"What was it like the first time you saw me?" she asks. "What was it about me that made you want to ask me out? And tell me everything, even the bad thoughts."

I laugh. "There weren't any bad thoughts. Inappropriate thoughts, maybe. But not bad."

She smirks. "Well then tell me those, too."


End file.
